Remember the netbooks of yesteryear? Conceived as budget machines typically sporting Atom processors from Intel, they look great on paper: reasonable specifications, cheaper, and smaller than "standard-sized" laptops.

Ultimately, though, many netbooks were also slow to the point of being unusable as manufacturers went for the subpar hardware to achieve possible prices.

I recalled a business-owner friend who tried to show clients some photos of the company's work from a staffer's netbook. The machine took so long to start up that the (important) client made quips about "upgrading" to a Mac laptop. Needless to say, the employee had his machine changed soon after.

This was the reason why my last two laptops were equipped with fast solid-state drives (SSD) and usually upgraded to 6GB or 8GB of RAM. The equation to me is simple: there is no point in saving a few dollars on a work machine only to have to "wait on it" all the time.

Fortunately, the netbook problem is one that belongs to the past now. After spending time with various ultrabooks including a Lenovo U310, I have come to the conclusion that they do indeed deliver on the responsiveness and speed required to get work done--and at an affordable price.

Of course, some businesses will find the specifications lacking in terms of the operating system version and the lack of Gigabit Ethernet. Also, the battery life clocked in closer to 5 hours in my hands-on than the "up to 7 hours" that was published.

Ultimately, however, the U310 proved to be a well-rounded machine, and more importantly, woke up from sleep mode within a couple of seconds and felt responsive. In fact, the average (non-gamer) office worker will be hard-pressed to tell the difference from the U310 and a more expensive laptop.

According to Lenovo, the IdeaPad U310 is currently priced at SG$1,299 and comes in a wide variety of colors. You can find a list of retailers located in Singapore here.

Paul is a writer and blogger who lives in Singapore, where he has worked for a number of years in various capacities within the IT industry. He enjoys tinkering with tech gadgets, smartphones and networking devices.

Disclosure

Paul Mah is a freelance tech writer. He does not own stocks or other investments in the technology companies he blogs about. He previously has done a series of sponsored blogs for Dell and Microsoft, and is currently hosting a new series with Dell and Intel. These are published on his personal blog.